INDIANAPOLIS — Within hours after the multibillion-dollar Major Moves road bill passed the General Assembly, Gov. Mitch Daniels vaulted into public education, announcing he will press for full-day kindergarten in the next session.

The governor also caught even some of his top advisers off guard last week when he began announcing in public appearances that he planned to press for education reform when lawmakers return next year.

Daniels had been criticized for not focusing on education — nearly 60 percent of the state budget. But with the $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana Toll Road in hand and the state’s finances recovering, Daniels said the state was now in better shape to tackle schools.

“As we have some new funds to invest for the first time now in years, education is the place to start. I think full-day kindergarten will be the first but not the only initiative that we bring forward,” Daniels said.

He doesn’t have the details of how full-day kindergarten would work under his plan. Estimates from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency placed the cost at $90 million. Another $121 million could also be needed to add classroom space around the state for an all-day program.

At the moment, kindergartners spend 2-1/2 hours in class, which is not enough, according to educators.

“We see the benefits almost immediately,” said Maureen Stafford, director of instruction and assessment for the Munster Community Schools.

Munster began offering the option of all-day kindergarten 13 years ago. The first measure of success is that all-day students are less likely to need a separate program offered by the school that helps young students prepare for reading.

Stafford came from a rural Indiana system that began offering full-day kindergarten in the 1980s, to give a leg-up to students who often did not attend preschools. The results, she said, were just as predictable. Student achievement rose.

This year, 96 of the 176 children enrolled in Munster’s kindergarten program have opted for the full-day program. Though the price is being updated, parents currently spend $1,800 a year for the full-day program. If the program did not have to pay for the extra instruction time, she said, participation would likely be even higher.

Stafford’s advice to the governor would be to implement it across the state and pick up the full cost.

“I think it has to be equitable. If it is going to be offered, it should be offered to all children, not just those in poverty,” Stafford said.

By his own admission, the governor admits education has been secondary to his plans for balancing the budget and attempting to rev up the state’s Rust Belt economy.

In a down year for education bills in general, Daniels’ took some of his largest failures in school reform. He failed to pass a bill that would have allowed districts to set aside certain Indiana Department of Education regulations. His bid to make the superintendent of public instruction an appointed position died in the House.

He also supports moving the ISTEP test from the fall to the spring. The measure died, though the Department of Education was given until November to study the way the state tests in Indiana, and report back to the General Assembly.

The administration counts as a success new rules that make it easier for charter schools to operate. That measure passed in 2005.

Detractors are concerned Daniels’ reforms will include more privatization, like the Indiana Toll Road, said Rep. Duane Cheney, D-Portage.

While pushing for Major Moves, Daniels did not weigh in on bills that would have opened up Indiana to school vouchers, including a plan proposed by Republicans in the House that would have given money to parents to use for private kindergarten programs.

“It wasn’t about full-day kindergarten; it was about using kindergarten to push for vouchers,” Cheney said.

So far the governor has not stated a position on school vouchers or other major reforms of education. Instead, he has had a well-publicized cool relationship with Superintendent of Public Instruction Suellen Reed, a fellow Republican.

Reed did not support moving ISTEP to the spring. Having the language turned into a study of testing was largely seen as a victory for the Department of Education.

Reed said she accepts that Daniels has focused on the economy his first two sessions. They continue to talk.

Ironically, Reed may have had a closer relationship with former Gov. Frank O’Bannon. The two of them, along with the Indiana business community, founded the Indiana Education Roundtable in 1999 to help set education policy. It was the same session that the two also pushed for full-day kindergarten, at a time of record budget surpluses. The bill died in the Senate.

The Legislature chose tax cuts instead, and then the recession dropped tax collection.

The Education Roundtable continues to meet. The number of meetings has been on the rise since the governor’s first months in office.

As the session wore on, Daniels made a point of saying that he and Reed have been talking. The cool relationship has been overblown, he said.

“We agree on more than we disagree,” Daniels said before the session ended.

By Friday, after announcing he would go for full-day kindergarten when lawmakers returned in January, the governor asked for time to work out an education package.

Daniels said he has instructed his top aide on education, David Shane, to begin meeting with people involved around the state to work out a plan.

“To talk about the practical issues — the schedule, some of the side effects of bringing full-day kindergarten. To make sure it’s done in the most thoughtful way, so that process has already started,” Daniels said.